Railway sleeper of reinforced concrete with rail fastening bolts



Oct. 20, 1953 v R. SON VILLE 2,656,115

RAILWAY EPER OE INFORCED CONCRETE W RAIL FASTENING BULTS Filed Feb; 25,1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fgw ya I j q. Q IVIQIHI! y INVENTOR RsER Sow/EvLLE BY ATTDRNE Y Oct. 20, 1953 R. SONNEVILLE v 2,656,115

RAILWAY SLEEPER OF REINFORCED CONCRETE WITH RAIL FASTENING BOLTS FiledFeb. 25, 1950 '2 Sheets-Sheet 2 5 ll A I N VENTOR :SONNEVIL BY ATTOR N EY Patented Oct. 20, 1953 RAILWAY SLEEPER F REINFORCED CON- CRETE WITHRAIL FASTENING BQLTS Roger Sonneville, Paris, France ApplicationFebruary 25, 1950, SerialNo. 146,246 In- France April 1, 1949' 3-Claims.

The present invention has for its object to provide the combination ofan improved railway sleeper of reinforced: concrete with a railfastening bolt of a suitable form cooperating with said sleeper aswellas a device for molding said sleeper.

It is known to make railway sleepers of reinforced concrete, whichoffers, in certain cases, the advantage to remedy the lack of wood andmakes itpossible, furthermore, to obtain: sleepers of ahigh strength.which do not become rotten.

One of the objects of the invention. consists in: making aconcretesleeper which offers the above mentioned advantages and makespossible arapid and reliable fastening of the rails on said sleeper bymeans of suitable bolts.

Another object of theinvention consists in making said sleeper through asimple, rapid and economical method of manufacture.

These purposes are attained through the combination in accordance withthe invention which comprises an. improved railway sleeper" ofreinforced concrete having; more particularly; along its longitudinalaxis, a mainmetallic reinforcement on which the hooking of the railfastening bolts is eif'ected directly, said reinforcement being formedof' a steel structural beam having a vertical web with recesses in whichthe heads of a suitable shape of the said bolts are inserted.

Other" characteristic features and advantages will become apparent fromthe ensuing descriptiorr taken with reference to the accompanyingdrawing, given by way of example; and in which:

Fig. 1 is an elevation view showing a sleeper made accordance with apreferred embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2* is a plan view showing said sleeper.

Fig. 3 is an elevation View on a larger scale the left hand part ofwhich is a section along line 3-3 of Fig. 4 and showing one part of thesleeper in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 4 is a plan view on thesame scale as Fig. 3' the left hand part ofwhich is a sectional view along line 4-4 of Fig. 3 and showing one partof the sleeper in accordance with the invention, the bolt being assumedto be in place and not cut off.

Fig. 5- is a cross-sectional view along line 5-5 of Fig. 3' showing asleeper in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 6 is a vertical sectional view along line 6-4; of Fig; l on alarger scale through one part of the sleeper and showing the details ofthe fastening of abolt in its recess.

Fig. '7 is a view of this same: part in ahorizontal section along linel--1' ofFig. 6, and

Fig. 8 is: a perspective View showing. one: part of amould: intended formaking a sleeper in accordance. with the-invention.

Fig. 9" is asideview of the bolt.

Fig- 10 is a side. view of. the. bolt taken atrigh-t angles to Fig; 9,and

Fig.1l isanend' view of thebolt;

Theimproved railway sleeper of reinforced concrete which forms theobject of the present invention comprises along its longer axis: areinforcement which consists of a steel structural beam. Said sleepermay have a general: prismatic shape as theusual wood sleepers or maycomprise, in a known Way, a middle part of reduced section serving as abrace betweenbothextreme partson which the rails rest. According to thepreferred form of execution ofth'e invention which is: shown in: Fig: Ithe sleeper is formed of two concrete end blocks or i= which comprise.inside reinforcements (not shown) and which are connected through thesaid axial structural beam 2 which forms the mainreinforcement' andbrace. According to one of the featu'res of the inventionsaid mainreinforcement 2 is formed ota steel structural beam which comprises avertical web as, for example an I or inverted T girder; It will beadvantageouslyform'ed of one of the two halves of old rails obtainedthrough sawing a rail in the direction of its length; it will bepossible to use, indifferently, the portion which comprises the head ofthe rail or that which comprises the foot; in both cases the remaininghalf web 3 is arranged upwardly, the head or'thefoot being thus in thelower part. On Figs. 1 and 2 a half-rail on the side of the foot isshown the left hand part and a halfrail on the side of the head is shownon the rig-ht hand part.

Both concrete end blocks maybe 01" any shape, the profiles shown inFigs. 1 and 2 being given only by way of example. The same is true forthe arrangement and the connection of the other reinforcements than themain reinforcement which are shown in Fig. 5.

The web of each; reinforcement comprises to wards eachof its ends tworecesses 4 of a particular profile intended to receive fastening boltheads of the corresponding rail; each of said recesses which is obtainedthrough punching or oxy-cutting comprises a so-called dovetail housing5, i. e. a recess of'a trapezoidal shape in the shape of a segment ofcircle or of another curve being enlarged downwardly and opening througha notch 6 which is narrower than the base 1 of the recess.

The rail fastening bolts 8 which are used with this type of sleeper havea fiat head 9 the section of which is of the same shape as that ofrecess 5 but the sizes of which are slightly smaller. Head 9 of the boltbeing placed in its recess and the bolt being drawn upwardly, a play inremains between the base of the said bolt head 9 and base 1 of therecess as shown, more particularly, on a larger scale on Fig. 6.

A vertical tunnel or passage II is provided in the concrete above therecess at the moment of pouring; the section of said passage l i througha horizontal plane is a rectangle the largest dimension of which isarranged perpendicularly to the axis of the sleeper (see Fig. 5); itsdimensions are such that they allow the introduction of a bolt providedwith the above described head 9, said head being moved down to theposition shown in dotted lines on Fig. 4, i. e. transversely to the Webof the main reinforcement 2.

Since head 8 must then be turned by 90 in order to penetrate entirelyinto its recess 5 as shown in full lines on Fig. 4, a substantiallyhorizontal cavity 12 -42 of a suitable section and opening on each ofthe side faces of the sleeper is provided on both sides of the braceweb.

Both cavities l2 -|2 or horizontal tunnels are off-set with respect toeach other in the horizontal plane as shown in Fig. 4 and on largerscale on Fig. 7 so as to form stops l3 l3 for the bolt head 9. DimensionA (Fig. '7) of cavity l1 must be at least equal to or practicallyslightly larger than the half-diagonal OD of the base rectangle of bolthead 9 in order to allow of the rotation of said head 9 when the latterhas been moved down to the bottom of its recess 5.

The fastening of rail R on the concrete end block by means of bolts 8may be effected through the medium of clips 14 of any type, each clipbeing clamped through a nut [5 on a bolt 8 passing through the same. Itis a kind of fastening of this type which is shown on Figs. 3, 4 and 5.

It is also possible to use resilient fastening devices similar to thosedescribed in United States Patent No. 2,480,388 filed on March 16, 1948,for a resilient device for fixing railway rails to the sleepers. It is afastening method of this kind which is shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 6. Inthis case, of course, the sleeper will comprise cavities l6 which arenecessary for receiving the loop B of the fastening piece or anintermediary supporting piece for said loop.

In order to fasten a bolt 8 on the above described sleeper it issufiicient to move down said bolt the head 9 below, in the verticalpassage II as far as the bottom of the recess 4, then to rotate saidbolt by 90 clockwise, i. e. till head 9 comes to strike against thewalls It -l3 of the cavities l2 l2 The bolt is then locked in itsrecess. After the insertion of the clip or of the resilient fasteningpiece the tightening of the nut l5 draws bolt 8 upwardly while clampingit on the upper wall of its recess, thus rendering impossible anyrotation.

Cavities l2 l2 opening at N and I! on the side faces of the concrete endblock render possible, furthermore the draining of water or the removalof sand, pebbles or various other bodies which could penetrate inthrough the vertical passages.

The cavities l2, I2 may be provided at the moment of the pouring througha very simple method which consists in using a system of coresconstituted by rods havin a suitable profile and one of which at leastpasses horizontally right through the mould as well as through the webof the main reinforcement through the hole receiving the bolt head.

Fig. 8 shows by way of example a portion of a mould for making sleepersthrough the said method in accordance With the invention. The mould isshown in its inverted position, the bottom (the upper part of thefigure) being removed in order to show the main reinforcement 3supported by horizontal cores !8 and I9 of suitable shapes which make itpossible to obtain the cavities 12 and IF, one, l8, of said pins passingentirely right through the mould as well as through the web 3 of themain reinforcement through the hole receiving the bolt head and thusresting on the side walls 28 and 2| of the mould.

The cores corresponding to each of the four fastening holes for thebolts make it possible to maintain the main reinforcement 3 of thesleeper in the mould in a positive and precise manner at the moment ofthe pouring of the concrete as well as in the course of themanipulations of the mould filled with fresh concrete, and make it evenpossible to turn down the mould without the main reinforcement 3 and theother reinforcements which may be rendered fast with it, pressing on thefresh concrete.

The vertical passage H is provided by means of a prismatic core having arectangular section, not shown.

Of course, the invention is not limited to the forms of execution whichare described and shown and which were given only by way of examples.

Having now described my invention what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a railroad tie, the combination of a concrete sleeper, a mainlongitudinal metallic rein forcement embedded in said sleeper andconsisting of a steel structural beam having a vertical web, and railfastening bolts each consistin of a rectangular dove tail head hooked insaid web and a shank portion extending through said sleeper above theupper surface thereof of the web, said web being provided with recesses,each of a dove tail shape adapted to receive the head of one of saidbolts and a vertical notch for the shank portion thereof extending fromsaid dove tail housing to said sleeper, said latter having verticalpassages of rectangular cross, section corresponding to the size of saidbolt heads,

. each disposed above one of said recesse with its length arrangedtransversely to said beam and opening into the upper surface of saidsleeper and into said notch, and cavities, one on each side of eachrecess, opening into the dove tail recesses and adapted to allow of arotation by of the dove tail head of said bolts, the wall of saidcavities being arranged as stops for said bolt heads at the end of saidrotation.

2. In a railroad tie, the combination of a concrete sleeper, a mainlongitudinal metallic reinforcement embedded in said sleeper andconsisting of a steel structural beam having a vertical web, and railfastening bolts each consisting of a rectangular dove tail head hookedin said web and a shank portion extending through said sleeper above theupper surface of the web, said web being provided with recesses, each'of a dove tail shape adapted to receive the head of one of said boltsand a vertical notch for the shank portion thereof extending from saiddovetall housing to said sleeper, said latter having vertical passagesof rectangular cross section corresponding to the size of said boltheads, each disposed above one of said recesses with its length arrangedtransversely to said beam and opening into the upper surface of saidsleeper and into said notch; and horizontal tunnels, one on each side ofeach recess, opening into the dove tail recess and into thecorresponding side face of said sleeper, both of the tunnelscorresponding to one and the same recess being adapted to allow of arotation of 90 of the dove tail head of said bolts, the walls of saidtunnels being arranged as stops for said bolt heads at the end of saidrotation.

3. In a railroad tie, the combination of a concrete sleeper, a mainlongitudinal metallic reinforcement embedded in said sleeper andconsisting of a steel structural beam having a vertical web, and railfastening bolts each consisting of a rectangular dove tail head hookedin said web and a shank portion extending through said sleeper over theupper surface of the web, said web being provided with recesses, each ofa dove tafi shape with a flat bottom adapted to receive the head of oneof said bolts and a vertical notch for the shank portion thereofextending from said dove tail recess to said sleeper, said latter havingvertical passages of rectangular cross section corresponding to the sizeof said bolt heads, each disposed above one of said recesses with itslength arranged transversely to said beam and opening into the uppersurface of said sleeper and into said notch, and horizontal tunnels,each on each side of each recess, said tunnels being disposedtransversely to said beam and opening into the corresponding side faceof said sleeper and into the dove tail recesses with a Width less thanthe length of the bottom of said recesses, both of the tunnelscorresponding to one and the same recess being parallel and Offset inthe same horizontaI plane, so as to provide stops for the head of thebolts inserted in said recess after its rotation by 90.

ROGER SONNEVILLE.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 711,277 Bell Oct. 14, 1902 793,789 Homan July 4, 19051,027,370 Baechler May 21, 1912 1,396,566 Fieg Nov. 8, 1921 1,533,411Hellman et al. Apr. 14, 1925 1.699,197 Lossl Jan. 15, 1929 1,886,265Andreianov Nov. 1, 1932 2,037,965 Colt Apr. 21, 1936 2,480,388Sonneville Aug. 30, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 398,461France Mar. 24, 1909 568,471 France Dec. 22, 1923 377,499 Italy Dec. 18,1939

